statrei said:
In another thread palehorse made the following confession:
How does God give a person 'the victory?' I am certain there are many others on this list who would like to know the answer to that. Maybe we can discuss it to enlighten the group.
Happy sabbath ya'll
(though it won't be sabbath there for several hours most likely wherever you guys live
)
I'm not quite so sure what this means =/ theres a guy at school though who litterally hates me guts. Hardcore atheist, despises my views. I'm quite strong right winged, he's left winged, I'm pollitically incorrect, he's very pollitically correct, he's the smartest kid in the school overall (like, at the rate of his smart-ness growing, given a few years, he'd be smarter than the smarter year 13 teachers, or so we are told) a mini celebrity. He used to be friends with my best guy friend. Then, my friend noticed that I didn't insult him, nor did I use him as a personal joke machine, so he started hanging 'round me more than that guy and his friends, so now they hate me. They think I've taken him "away" from him. He also thinks my work ethnic isn't very good... because I procrastinate homework
but it isn't
too bad.
Anyway, he's a real pain. He's either indirectly insulting me, or just coming out and attacking me openly. He can be really cruel, espically behind my back. In my face, he treats me like I'm an idiot, constantly getting at me, trying to start fights etc. Sometimes, I grin and bear it. Othertimes, I loose my cool. The other day... I got a mark back from my test. I honestly didn't do that bad. It was an okay mark, 13 1/2 out of 20, plus I did one of the best in the class on another bit of homework. After I found out my marks, and I was walking back to my desk, he stops me. He asks me what I got. I told him I wouldn't tell him, because if I did, he'd use it in some form to laugh at me and insult me, as he most likely got full marks, even though I DID try hard on it >.O and walked back to my desk. So he comes over, and starts telling me, in his little voice and all, that if I didn't do blah blah and I didn't do this and didn't do that I'd have done better and yadedadeda.. like I didn't try. He had this smirk on his face, and it was an indirect/direct attack at me. So I yelled at the guy.
"TOM! SHUT UP! NO, SERIOUSLY. SHUT UP. GO AWAY. NOW!
GO AWAY!!!!" He looked a bit stunned, and walked back. I felt so horrible.
For two or so periods, I was in turmorial. I knew what I did was wrong but was as mad as sin and couldn't build up the courage to apologise. But I did though. It wasn't as great as it could've been, but it was an apology. I said I was sorry for yelling, though not sorry for being annoyed and upset at the way he treated me. Of course, he took this as a personal victory, but meh to him, I had the victory. He made a weak apology back, but he didn't mean it, he just had to say it. I meant it.
Okay, so afterwards, when we went our seperate ways, I started muttering to my other friend how angry I was that he treats me like that. But hey. I dunno, am I allowed to be upset? I just consider that a personal victory, after praying with God, and him giving me the strength and courage, he helped me win a victory in doing what was right, even if it was swallowing my pride a bit, because hey, I did mean the apology.
Okay, rambled a bit, don't expect anyone to read it. It was more for myself than anyone else xD
statrei said:
Is that a guaranteed process? Is that all there is to it? Maybe I should ask what you mean by being 'centered' on Him.
I agree, prayer doesn't always seem to work. For me, I generally gain victorys in studying his word more. If you give me your MBTI personality type, I might be able to help you out a bit more in this area =P
But in quick situations like the one above, prayer helps. Like when you rent to someone, I rented to God. I used him as the person who I told my feelings of anger and spite, and in return, he gave me less space in my mind for anger and more for reflection as the feelings left me, and consequently, I saw the error of my actions and then took emotion out of it. So, for me, prayer helps
thanks, I'll try to remember that verse next time I start to harbor hateful feelings 
